Children and Young People’s
Eating Disorders
The Children and Young Peoples Eating Disorders Programme supports the delivery of the core clinical programmes within the Long Term Plan and the Mental Health Implementation Plan 2019/20 - 2023/24 (the Implementation Plan) by connecting commissioners, providers, professionals, patients and the public across pathways of care with the aim of improving health outcomes. This is achieved by sharing best practice and innovation, assessing and benchmarking quality and outcomes and driving improvement where required, through targeted support.
We also have our NHS Futures site where we store more clinically focused information. You can request to be a member of our workspace. Please follow this link.
What We Are Trying To Achieve
The Yorkshire and the Humber Clinical Network Eating Disorder programme for Children and Young People is led by our Clinical Associate, Ursula Philpot, and Natalie Fox, Quality Improvement Lead.
The programme aims to support system partners in ensuring services are accessible and available in a timely manner and in line with National requirements.
Why It’s Important
Research has highlighted the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the wellbeing of Children and Young People. These effects are reported to be due to changes in regular routine, engagement in physical exercise, time spent with friends and family and relationships with food and technology (For more information please see Exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and UK lockdown on individuals with experience of eating disorders | Journal of Eating Disorders )
Consequently, there has been a significant increase in the number of under 20’s admitted over the past year (2020/21), with figures almost 50% higher than in 2019/20 (NHS Digital).
What we have achieved in the last 6 months
- Identified areas for improvement by asking services, young people, parents/carers and families about the current service offer and experiences through our mapping exercises. Most recently we have undertaken scoping on the experiences of 16-25 year olds, particularly around transition (move from children's to adult services and the move from home to university), working closely with students, primary care, eating disorders units and student mental health services.
- Provided regular opportunities for professionals to increase their knowledge around Eating Disorders, through ‘learning lunches’ (short training sessions), a ‘Community of Practice’ (peer support) and in-depth courses offered by Beat and SYEDA (South Yorkshire Eating Disorder Association). In-house training has also been delivered by our Clinical Associate on topics including guided self-help, motivational interviewing and the early identification of Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID).
- Worked in partnership with Workforce, Training and Education (WTE) - formerly Health Education England) to provide training opportunities for professionals and parents/carers. This has included training on body image, eating disorder awareness and ARFID. We are pleased to have recently supported 8 families across North East and Yorkshire to attend Beat's new Endeavour programme for ARFID and 28 schools to pilot SEED's Educational Toolkit for Primary and Secondary Schools.
- Expanded our Eating Disorder Champions to professionals working within universities, schools/colleges and paediatric inpatient wards to ensure non-Eating Disorder specialists receive access to training opportunities and peer support and are supported to share learning, experiences and best practice amongst colleagues in order to signpost young people and their families to relevant resources and services that can provide support.
What We Plan To Do In The Next 6 Months:
- We hope to launch our ARFID Awareness video in the next few months. This will be accompanied by a leaflet for parents and carers, which provides thoughts and ideas from families supporting young people with ARFID.
- Continue to provide further shared learning and training opportunities for professionals, parents/carers and families.
- Undertake further mapping on ARFID to identify progress from last year and areas for improvement.
- Expand our Eating Disorder Champions programme further to voluntary sector organisations e.g. charities.
Meetings and Events
- Yorkshire and the Humber Clinical Network Children and Young People’s Eating Disorder Learning Collaborative (Bi-annual)
- Yorkshire and the Humber Clinical Network Children and Young People’s Eating Disorder Learning Lunches (Bi-monthly) – Recent topics have included; individualised care and body image.
- Yorkshire and the Humber Clinical Network Children and Young People’s Eating Disorder Community of Practice (peer support/space for shared learning) (Bi-Monthly) - currently focused on ARFID.
- ARFID Pathway Development Group (Quarterly)
Local Services
Specialist Eating Disorder Services can be found here;
Services in our region include:
- Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Humber NHS Foundation Trust
- Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
- Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust
- Sheffield Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (Barnsley) (Wakefield)
- Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust
Helpful Resources and Links
- Beat – a national charity for eating disorders
- Mind – provides information on possible causes, symptoms, how to access support and self-care tips.
- NHS Overview of Eating Disorders
- NHS Advice for Parents
- NHS Supporting Someone with an Eating Disorder
- SEED (Support and Empathy for People with Eating Disorders) – registered charity providing support and guidance from people with first-hand experience of Eating Disorders
- SYEDA (South Yorkshire Eating Disorder Association) – independent charity providing non-judgemental support to people affected by Eating Disorders
- PEACE Pathway - pathway for Eating Disorders and Autisms. Contains wellbeing resources
- Eva Musby - Support for parents and carers
- Be Body Positive - Support for young people, parents/carers and professionals
- ARFID Awareness Film
- ARFID Parent/Carer Leaflet
- Easy Read ARFID Parent/Carer Leaflet